Erroneous transfer 6 months ago

kelmck

I've searched the internet and found nothing relating to my issue so I'm hoping someone here can help. 

In January my husband had an email from British Gas saying they were sorry he was leaving them but as he hadn't requested to switch supplier, he ignored the email as there has been alot of scams/spam during covid. He heard nothing else about it and assumed that his direct debits were going out as normal but when he tried to log in to his BG account the other day as we didn't get the usual quarterly bill it said it had been closed. I asked him to look through his bank statements and no payment had been taken since December. He rang BG who said our supplier was now Avro energy and when he told them he didn't ask to switch, they said he could switch back to BG and the switch date is the 25th June. 

The next day someone came on behalf of Avro to read the meters and were surprised as the name of the account holder didn't match my husbands but the meter numbers were correct. We have never received any letters or other communication from Avro energy in the last 6 months so haven't paid a bill. We don't know what has happened, who has been paying for our energy or if BG can just transfer us back without acknowledging that an error was made as we currently don't seem to be a customer of anyone. Do we need to wait for the energy companies to sort it out or is there something we can do? 

[Deleted User]

Speak to British Gas and ask them to invoke The Erroneous Transfer Code. That said, there would appear to be more to this than just an erroneous transfer. If you are in a new build then it is possible that your meters have been mis-registered. When your meters were installed, your property would have been allocated a MPAN and a MPRN. The two meter serial numbers will then be linked to these numbers. Your home though will have had a plot number and a postal address: sadly, all too often properties are registered as plot 6 and the word plot gets missed of the registration. As happened to me, my meters were linked to No 6 (we live at No14/Plot 6) and No5s meters (plot 14) were linked to my postal address et seq.

This is something that your supplier needs to resolve. Given the cascade effect, resolution can take sometime. DO NOT under any circumstances try to switch the meter serial number on your wall to your postal address. You must get both the MPAN and MPANs transferred back to your property: the linked meter serial numbers will then follow.

kelmck

We have been renting and living in our house for nearly 11 years. I think it was built in the 70’s.

[Deleted User]

kelmck said:

We have been renting and living in our house for nearly 11 years. I think it was built in the 70’s.

Then it sounds like a simple erroneous transfer which BG should be able to resolve. You will owe Avro nothing and BG should bill you as if you had remained as its customer throughout. Any dispute over costs will be resolved by the two suppliers.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/problems-with-your-energy-supply/youve-been-switched-to-a-new-energy-supplier-without-your-agreement/

niktheguru

The learning point from this is if your husband received a letter stating "sorry for leaving" from British gas it may have been worth checking your online account a bit sooner to check that everything was in working order. Its easy to say in hind sight that you should have contacted them as soon as you got the letter but I understand why this would get missed if you thought it was spam.....but its still better to check sooner rather than 6 months down the line!

As others have said, you need to ensure british gas work on this as an "erroneous transfer" and not just a new switch.

rp1974

Another reason why paying quarterly seems unwise to me,if your paying monthly such an issue would've been apparent after a month.
Almost as unwise as not checking online accounts,bank statements,etc etc,still on the bright side at least the money that would've paid for it's still in the bank,for when it is sorted out.
I'm all for making switching easier and simpler overall,though sometimes things don't quite pan out as intended.

MWT

kelmck said:

We don't know what has happened, who has been paying for our energy ...

That one at least is easy to answer, nobody else has been paying for your electricity, and once this is resolved you will be expected to pay BG for everything used since your last bill from BG.

jbuchanangb

A possibility is that the occupier of a different but similar address requested to switch to AVRO. For example 15 Acacia Avenue, versus 15 Acacia Way. AVRO used the wrong address and switched you instead, and have been billing the other person for your energy, while they are probably also being billed by their other supplier too, the one they tried to switch away from. When BG sort you out, that other customer will also get some sort of a shock!